Who makes the semis?

[SlavikSvensk]

injury. gyan is almost certainly not going to play, and prince boateng is 50/50.

seeing as how they only scored 2 goals outside of penalties so far, and those came from gyan/prince combo upfront, i have a hard time seeing them sustain the magic touch against uruguay, who are playing much more disciplined football than the US did.

[C.O.Prodigy]

injury. gyan is almost certainly not going to play, and prince boateng is 50/50.

The USA were very physical. You gotta learn how to lose US, or your football skillz will never be champion worthy. Team Ghana is really strong the US needed to work really hard to injure the two players. I wish I could say good work.

seeing as how they only scored 2 goals outside of penalties so far, and those came from gyan/prince combo upfront, i have a hard time seeing them sustain the magic touch against uruguay, who are playing much more disciplined football than the US did.

Of course, now there is a better chance of Uruguay in the semis.
It also coincides well with whole history repeating theme of the WC.
In 1930 Uruguay made the very first semis of the FIFA world cup legacy.
If that feat is achieved this world cup, it would signal the full circle back to the very first world cup to nostalgists and traditionalists, thus enforcing the history repeating theme of South Africa 2010.
It wouldn't surprise me that you are right and that I should put some money on Uruguay.

[C.O.Prodigy]

BBC Sport - Football - Tuesday's World Cup round-up

Burglars stole seven replicas of the golden World Cup trophy on Sunday after breaking into Fifa's offices in South Africa, police have said.

"We know there was a burglary at the FIFA offices. Seven replicas of the World Cup were stolen and several sweaters. Police are looking into it," said national police chief Bheki Cele.

No trophy for the winner?
Unbelievable.

The FIFA burglars were burgled themselves.
It's disappointing when FIFA promotes cheating by example but it's satisfying when what goes around comes around. Too bad for the footballers that got cheated because their next time is in 4 years.

[C.O.Prodigy]

Thinking about who I want to see in the semis.
Looking at the 4 Quarter-finals matches, BRA-NED and GER-ARG can make a great semi final line up on their own, URU-GHA and ESP-PAR are less marquee matchups but as it stands we are in store for four footballing epics as long as FIFA don't start burglarizing teams, again.

Who do I want in the semis?
The prospect of Spain vs Argentina is too mouthwatering to ignore but on the other hand I don't like what happened in the Mexico match so I'm forced to support Germany in that match, although the prospect of ESP-ARG in the semis is to good to ignore. I don't know, If Argentina win the first game then I want Spain to challenge them in the next round, but if Germany win a Spanish victory would set up a repeat of the Euro 08 final which is great in itself but I like the way Paraguay have played so I might support them against Spain. I dunno.
PAR-ARG also would make a good game but it seems highly unlikely to me at the moment, also it wouldn't be as good as ARG-ESP or ESP-GER. I guess I can't really decide.

Same thing with the possible BRA-URU semi final matchup, it seems unlikely because even though it's possible to have 4 south american teams in the semis I think that some of them aren't going to make it. URU and PAR are the likely ones to miss out but judging by the way they have been playing anything is possible.

Holland have a good chance with this almost being a home fixture for them in South Africa so if they can't beat Brazil now, they never will.

I guess for the footballing neutrals and for the drama effect I would like to see... .... ...

I will have to watch the Quarter-finals first in order to form an opinion, I just can't decide right now because all of the teams would make a great and exciting semi final line up. I guess that all I can say with some certainty is that the least possible semi final line up would have to be...

BRA-URU and ARG-PAR

... that would make it 4 south american teams and it would make history.

We'll see which ones make it and which don't, but I would like to see a BRA-GHA semi for footballing reasons, although NED-URU would be an instant classic.

Whoever wins, let's just hope we see more of football for a change.

[C.O.Prodigy]

playing this game online... I would like these players to perform in the Quarter-final...